1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium such as an ink jet recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, printing on a recording medium not only with a dye ink in which a water-soluble dye is dissolved, but also with a pigment ink in which a pigment is dispersed in water has increased. In addition, high-speed recording with the pigment ink has come to be conducted with the current trend of speeding up of recording. Further, a high ink absorption volume has also been required for providing a high-definition printed image. In particular, this requirement is marked in an ink jet recording medium used in recording with an ink jet system.
It has heretofore been investigated as a method for improving the ink absorbency of an ink jet recording medium to cause an ink receiving layer in which an inorganic pigment and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are used to have a multilayer structure. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-138403 discloses a method for improving ink absorbency by causing an ink receiving layer to have a two-layer structure and making a peak pore size (a pore size giving a peak in a pore distribution curve) of an upper layer greater than a peak pore size of a lower layer. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-167959 discloses a method for improving ink absorbency by causing an ink receiving layer to have a two-layer structure, forming a lower layer in such a manner that its pore distribution curve has at least one peak between pore sizes of 0.1 μm or more and 10 μm or less and controlling a peak pore size of an upper layer to 0.06 μm or less.